Workers Issues in Canada

A government source told Canadian Press Friday evening that state intervention against postal workers could come as early as Sunday, adding, in a reference to Trudeau’s earlier threat, “‘all the options’ does include legislating.”

The union’s rotating strike strategy is designed to dissipate workers’ energy, curtail Canada Post’s profits as little as possible, and avoid confrontation with the trade union-supported Liberal government.

Thousands of public sector workers rallied in Venezuela last week to protest falling living standards, while the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is continuing its strategy of impotent rotating one-day strikes in order to dissipate worker anger without seriously impacting mail delivery.

After decades of suppressing working class opposition to Liberal and PQ-led austerity governments, the unions are now offering their services to François Legault and his right-wing populist CAQ government.

Part 3: The 1997 Ontario teachers’ strike

By
Carl Bronski and Roger Jordan,
10 October 2018

The unions scuttled the province-wide teachers’ strike not because of any lack of rank-and-file or public support, but because they feared that the teachers’ defiance would spark a wider working-class challenge to the Harris government.

Chilean teachers in two-day national strike; BC forestry workers set to walk out

Tens of thousands of teachers struck across Chile on October 3 and 4 to press demands, including economic grievances, while 2,000 forestry workers in northern British Columbia in Canada are preparing to go on strike.

Part 2: Unions work to diffuse swelling working-class opposition

By
Carl Bronski and Roger Jordan,
8 October 2018

By organizing a series of regional “days of action” in smaller cities, the union bureaucracy sought to allow workers to let off steam, while pledging to uphold Harris’ “constitutional mandate” to govern.

While stoking reactionary Canadian nationalism and boasting of their role as official government advisers during the NAFTA talks, leading union bureaucrats are pulling out all the stops to prevent an eruption of class struggle.

Alcoa has forced 1,500 workers at five facilities in Western Australia out on strike, even as it issues fresh threats against workers at its Bécancour, Quebec, aluminum smelter who have been locked out since January.

The workers are determined to resist ABI’s concessions demands. But the Steelworkers union is adamantly opposed to making their struggle a rallying point for opposition to the big business assault on jobs, wages and working conditions.

Under conditions of a global resurgence of the class struggle, Klein has intervened in the Ontario election campaign to try to refurbish the NDP’s tattered “left” credentials and resuscitate illusions in the failed national-reformist perspective.

The Teamsters have provided no details of the proposed four-year agreement, let alone given the striking train drivers and conductors the opportunity to study and vote on it prior to forcing them back to work.

Canadian Pacific Railway workers set to strike

Some 3,000 rail workers across Canada are set to strike Tuesday evening after rejecting management’s last offer, which failed to meet worker demands for improvements in working conditions and other issues.

Three-day strike by Mexican teachers in Chiapas and Oaxaca

The action included mass protest marches and the occupation of government buildings to press educators demands including the rollback of pro business education reforms and the re-opening of negotiations.

Halifax shipyard workers stage wildcat walkout

Hundreds of Halifax shipbuilding workers walked off the job January 25 to protest irregularities in their paychecks, defying union officials who insisted they stay on the job during ongoing contract negotiations.